EQCA Dinner Sat Night

EQUALITY CALIFORNIA DINNER KEYNOTES ARE 1ST SAME-SEX COUPLE TO MARRY IN
CANADA -

QUEBEC JOINS IN ISSUING MARRIAGE LICENSES TODAY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19, 2004

Contact:
Molly McKay
Dinner Event Co-Chair
415-875-3204
mmckay [at] marriageequalityca.org <mailto:mmckay [at] marriageequalityca.org>

SAN FRANCISCO: On Saturday, March 20, 2004, at 6:30 p.m. hundreds will
gather in support of Equality California's (EQCA) work to secure equal
rights for the LGBT community at its annual fundraising dinner at the
Four Seasons Hotel.

The dinner's keynote address from husbands, Kevin Bourassa and Joe
Varnell, the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Canada, is all
the more timely in light of Quebec's highest court's decision to join
Ontario and British Colombia in ruling that same-sex couples are
entitled to marry. Quebec's new decision means that 71% of Canada is
now issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The couple is available for pre-interviews anytime on Saturday before
the dinner and will be attending the VIP reception with Mayor Newsom at
5:30 p.m.

Concerned Women For America have called them "domestic terrorists",
while the New York Times says, "Mr Varnell and Mr Bourassa may be
Canada's most celebrated gay couple ..." Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell
lived a private life until December 2000 when the Metropolitan Community
Church of Toronto announced plans to marry the couple on January 14,
2001. Eighty news organizations from around the world attended their
marriage, while riot police, bomb squads, fire engines and ambulances
provided support against the threats their marriage generated.

"This was not like any wedding before it," The Toronto Sun reported the
next day. "The presiding reverend wore a bullet-proof vest. ... it
brought a community to life ... knowing the political relevance of the
event, knowing that a step was taken that may change their lives forever
..."

The governments of Canada and Ontario refused to recognize their
marriage, so with the support of their congregation, and the legal team
at Roy Elliott Kim O'Connor, Bourassa and Varnell went to court.

On June 10, 2003, the couple won their legal challenge when Ontario's
highest court ordered the province to register the Bourassa/Varnell
marriage and begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"We are deeply grateful to join the distinguished company of those who
are being honored by Equality California this weekend. We are walking
in the footsteps of others who came before us; others who delivered
rights that helped to form the foundation of our success. The landmark
U.S. civil rights cases, such as Loving v. Virginia and Brown v. Board
of Education, were successfully used to support our case in Canada. We
hope, in some small way, we are able to return the favor, through the
Canadian example, in helping to advance human rights for our neighbors
and friends in the United States."

For Further information or interviews please contact:
Kevin Bourassa at the Four Seasons hotel directly at (415) 633-3000.

Founded in 1998, Equality California is a nonprofit, nonpartisan,
grassroots-based, statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to
ensure the dignity, safety, equality and civil rights of all lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Californians. Equality California
is one of the largest and fastest growing statewide LGBT organizations
in the country. We can be contacted through our website at http://www.eqca.org
<http://www.eqca.org/> .